US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement that this year’s Special 301 Report showed that IP-intensive industries created 40 million American jobs and made up 60 percent of US exports.

Big Content will be particularly annoyed at Canada, Mexico and the United States, who all made the list for the fourth consecutive year, partly for failing to reform copyright laws.

The aim of the list is to shame governments into cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting and updating their copyright laws.

Russia has been on the list for 16 years and shows no sign that it is being shamed yet.

China has been on the priority watch list for eight years and subject to a special monitoring program under Section 306 of U.S. trade law since the late 1990s which has been remarkably ineffectual.

The report placed Ukraine on the priority watch list for the first time since 2007. The report said that Ukraine has made “minimal progress” in implementing a 2010 action plan to reduce piracy and counterfeiting and had taken some steps backward.

Malaysia and Spain were back on the Christmas card list for being removed from a lower level watch list that includes 27 countries this year.